


glass half empty

by circus



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Love Triangles, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-09-28 15:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17185379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circus/pseuds/circus
Summary: an excerpt of something i started in 2015. might continue if this goes well





	glass half empty

**Author's Note:**

> an excerpt of something i started in 2015. might continue if this goes well

"i'm not happy, baek,” jongin exasperatedly sighed. "and neither are you. we've been going like this for too long."

glass shattered onto the marble floor as the teacup slipped out of baekhyun's hands. "jesus christ,” jongin muttered, leaning over the coffee table in between them. an angry frown settled on his chapped lips as he yanked his boyfriend’s foot into his hands. after examining it for scratches, jongin shifted his gaze to baekhyun's eyes. It was a challenge just to look at him nowadays, for the gloominess in the other was enough to bring jongin's own world crashing down. and the reason as to why baekhyun was so upset all the time, jongin knew, was because of him.

baekhyun looked down at his foot, but did not notice the blood oozing out of a freshly sliced gash. instead, he scrutinized at the way his small, frail foot seemed to fit perfectly into jongin's rough hands. in the same way, their hearts had always seemed like such a perfect fit to him. he knew well enough that their relationship had their flaws; jongin's easily activated fury, as well as baekhyun's sarcastic attitude were often hard to hold back. however, when the two were as intimate as they were now, baekhyun had always felt as if the couple were pieces of a puzzle that had been hot glued together. now, it seemed like the glue had worn out, and the pieces were starting to scatter.

“i don’t understand,” baekhyun murmured, his eyes gazing at the distance in confusion. just when he had started to think that their five years worth of arguments had settled, jongin had begun to grow distant from him. “everyone can get a little stressed after they graduate. it's only been a few months, so give it some time,” their close friend, joonmyun, had advised baekhyun. and so he had started to become more patient for jongin, who was also beginning to resolve his own issues.

“you don’t have to, baek, because i already do,” jongin frustratedly replied, releasing the other's foot. he stood up, pulling out a pair of scratched suitcases from under the sofa. baekhyun looked down in surprise, jumping up. “how long has that been under there? for how long-,” he started to shout, before his voice started to quiver. “-have you been planning to leave me?”

another sigh, this one heavier, escaped jongin's lips. his grip on the suitcases tightened. god, how he wished that he could walk out right then. but he knew he owed baekhyun some closure, or at least some false explanation.

“my parents don't think it's normal for unmarried couples to live together,” he lied, still staring up at the ceiling. he couldn’t tell baekhyun the truth, at least not yet.

baekhyun angrily shoved at jongin's shoulder, exerting an explosive fury. “and since when have you cared about what others think? and at that- your parents?”

jongin looked down in astonishment, not having expected such an enraged response.

“what's that supposed to mean? don't you know my family is all i have?" he replied, his fist slowly closing upon itself as he tried his best to contain the growing anger inside of him.

“that's irrelevant to what we’re talking about, i'm asking why you suddenly care about what other people think about us."

“my family is irrelevant? baek- they're the only reason we even have a roof over our heads right now!”

baekhyun shut his eyes in frustration. at times like this, he could not talk to jongin properly. jongin had always been an emotionally conflicted person, taking his words in ways that he did not mean at all. some of baekhyun's friends blamed it on jongin's anger issues, and others observed that we was simply too manipulative for his own good. but baekhyun never saw it- to him, it had always seemed like jongin could do no wrong. _oh, the disappointment._

“fine,” baekhyun replied, turning his eyes towards the door. two handprints remained painted on the wall next to it, from when they had first moved in and jongin had accidentally gotten paint on his hands. he had childishly insisted that baekhyun leave a mark as well, despite their landlord's strict guidelines against decorating the walls. “as long as those hands are on that old, dusty wall,” jongin had whispered into baekhyun's ear that night. “ours will always be together.” his large hands had wrapped around the other's smaller ones, a comforting feeling that baekhyun had taken for granted. "just like this."

“jesus christ," muttered baekhyun, many flashbacks running through his already conflicted mind. "get out, jongin.”

jongin took a deep breath. “i don't want to end this on bad terms-"

“out,” baekhyun interrupted. “out of my sight, please.”

jongin ran a hand through his hair once again, a habit that baekhyun had become so accustomed to. it was all the little things, he realized, that upset him so much about this break up. the silver ring on jongin's thumb that he would never see again, or the constantly unraveled left lace to jongin's boots that baekhyun would no longer tie for him. who else in the world could read baekhyun the way jongin did- love him in the way that had already seemed so perfect?

“there will be a time when i'll tell you why i had to do this, and there will be a time when you will finally understand,” jongin mumbled, impatiently grabbing his suitcases. the volume in his steady voice was starting to rise, and before he knew it, it had become a shout that even the neighbors could hear. _god damn it, jongin, you were doing so well_. but even the neighbors had become used to this- the constant shouting, the constant fighting.

“i’m not doing this because i don't love you. because that's what your friends think, right? i'm the fucking bad guy with his fucking anger. and it's never you, baekhyun, never you and your angelic facade. it's never your every day mental breakdowns about mom did this or dad did that, your fucking impatience for anyone who doesn't give you exactly what you want. it's always about me and my fucking anger when you're the reason we can't buy glass tableware because look at this," he continued to yell, stepping on the broken pieces of the teacup baekhyun had dropped. "you fucking break all of them! you break the dishes, the bowls, the fucking paintings and all our vases. and i always end up cleaning up after you! but with me, i can't even say a fucking word without you crying. can't even breathe without you getting all worked up, can't even-"

"okay," interrupted baekhyun.

despite the chaos from their fight, everything in their apartment seemed to still. even the cup of water on the table. even their six year old neighbor who had been running around upstairs. the room was silent except for jongin's heavy breathing, all so fitting with the way his hands still twitched in anger.

baekhyun scrunched up his brows, looking at jongin in a shockingly calm manner. his expression remaining unbothered, and in fact, there was almost even a hint of a smile on his lips. "is this the part when i'm supposed to understand?" he finally replied, a token demonstration of the sarcasm that jongin had come to hate so much. avoiding his problems instead of confronting them. it was textbook baekhyun.

jongin looked up from his suitcases, and only then did he seem to register what had just spilled out of his mouth. _where the fuck had that even come from?_ “no, baekhyun, that was out of the blue. that's not at all the reason why we're breaking up- god, baekhyun, please. just listen-”

“nope.”

baekhyun reached forward to grab jongin's suitcases, wheeling them to the door himself. “i'll call a cab for you,” he replied in a flat tone, trying his best to contain the growing tremble in his hands. he couldn't cry now- not when jongin had just yelled at him for it. if they were to break up, he might as well maintain a little dignity. but god- when had dignity ever mattered between them? or had it been only baekhyun who hadn't cared all along? "i'm just going to pretend that didn't happen, so please, for the love of god, get the fuck out."

for the first time that evening, it seemed to be jongin who was panicked now. the tables had turned, and baekhyun couldn't help but be satisfied now that the losing end had been turned onto jongin. "baekhyun, you need to listen to me. i don't want everything to end this way," he pleaded, grabbing baekhyun's shoulder.

“let me go.”

“please, please just listen to-”

"i've heard enough."

“baekhyun, I promise that-”

but baekhyun wasn’t able to hear what jongin was about to promise. because at that moment, he felt jongin get yanked away from him, and baekhyun looked up to see a much more round and animate pair of eyes staring back at him.

"stubborn jongin, always doing the opposite of what he's told. you haven't changed a bit, have you?" spoke a familiar voice.

baekhyun's eyes flickered in recognition, and jongin's darkened as his former adversary entered the room.

"park chanyeol?"


End file.
